Ballston Arts & Crafts Market

Happily surprised by the Arts & Crafts Market. I was expecting alot of cheesy trinkets, but instead found vendors that have a slight edge (oh so rare in NoVA!). Among the highlights: tsai-​fi which has cool tshirts and prints, fast snail stationary and motherboard jewelry (yes, cuff links for your inner nerd)
I found most things there cute and clever, and many vendors have their own Etsy sites which is nice for shopping without the pressure of buying right then and there. Give it a whirl…

I’m familiar with the Wellburn Square and it’s small size, so my most optimistic and realistic hope was to discover maybe one cool vendor and score a little trinket to hang on the fridge or around my neck. Unfortunately, even this modest goal proved to be elusive.
There were maybe 20 vendors, who just kind of hung out passively as foot traffic stopped by. This was definitely more of a crafts than art market, and I didn’t really find anything that caught my eye.
I think the atmosphere of a street fair sets the mood for the attitude with which you approach the individual vendors, and this market just didn’t have any level of festivity. I’m all for supporting local artists, but I wouldn’t make a trek to visit this one.
I was in and out in about 10 minutes, which says a lot for someone who has no trouble wasting at least an hour browsing through Harris Teeter for her weekly grocery shopping.

Went to the craft fair this morning. It’s cute but small, maybe 30 – 45 minutes to browse everything. Took longer to get there than to peruse. I’m into textiles and there were slim pickings. A bit more selection in jewelry but nothing really rocked my world. I’ll keep trying to support it though!